D&D 5E (2014) Atheism/Agnosticism in 5e?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Honestly, I suspect most arcane magic users in D&D would be in the "well, people CALL them gods, but they're REALLY just powerful outsiders with big egos" camp, especially once said arcanists start going up in levels and start getting their own big egos as a result.

 

[Charles Wright]

I think that they might change their tune once they reach a god-like status and, perhaps, need worshippers to continue to grow in power.

 

[Mirtek]

That is how it is described in the book. The warlock's patrons are not gods.

Actually some of the sample patrons listed are deities. Just more inhuman deities

 

[Evenglare]

Well I would argue that it's impossible to be an atheist within a game world that does indeed have Gods. It's redefining the term, religion is very real in many if not most game worlds. You simply must acknowledge gods exist in a world that includes Gods in the traditional sense. Now that doesn't really answer your question, but I had to clarify. There's irrefutable evidence that god exists in the game world because you can perform the same experiment (praying to your god and him allowing you to cast spells) over and over and over. Now you can choose not to worship a god even though you know they exist, I'm not actually sure there's a word for that in our world. The closest term I can think of is a Gnostic Atheist. So if your character is a divine character and the world you are in is defined to have gods and those gods give their powers away through divine magic, then the simple answer is no. You can not be a cleric without a god to worship, or rather you can but forget about the powers of the cleric because you don't have a source to draw from.

Now, if you want to work with your GM and he allows you to take domains, and his world is radically different from a normal world (like dragonlance or forgotten realms) then sure, you could probably just use domains or something to represent ideas and those ideas are the source of your power. But again, if you are playing in a traditional setting with gods, the you simply can't do it if such a world is set up like that.

 

[Henry]

What is referred to as "Atheism" in D&D is better described as "alatrism": the belief that a given being is not to be worshipped, due to unworthiness or futility (thanks to Wesley Schneider from Paizo for teaching me a new word! )

I believe that Snapdragyn's second theory (the minimal nature of 5e does not preclude your game table's decision) is the correct one here.

 

[Evenglare]

What is referred to as "Atheism" in D&D is better described as "alatrism": the belief that a given being is not to be worshipped, due to unworthiness or futility (thanks to Wesley Schneider from Paizo for teaching me a new word! )

I believe that Snapdragyn's second theory (the minimal nature of 5e does not preclude your game table's decision) is the correct one here.

Nice word, thanks for posting!

 

[Shiroiken]

It is very possible to have an atheist/agnostic character is almost any setting of D&D (Realms has a much harder time of pulling this off). All you have to believe is that divine spells are just magic (like arcane) that is accessed differently (maybe psionicly). Then you don't have to believe that the gods are real at all.

As far as if the gods are really "gods," that's more of a theological point that can work in any setting. "What is a god" in a universe where there are demons, devils, celestials, and elementals is almost a moot point. In my next campaign, all powerful extra-planar beings can grant spells, so "god" is just another descriptor.

 

[ppaladin123]

There is a specific faction in the planecscape setting that believes that the "gods" are just very powerful beings and should not be worshiped. So this idea/character possibility has been part of the game since 2nd edition. There is nothing in the 5e rules that demands god worship so it really comes down to the setting and your DM. What you are proposing for your warlock seems totally fine and totally in character with a warlock.

 

[Minigiant]

If you work hard enough, athetism works in most settings. You can make it work everywhere really, just matters on the setting.

In my setting, there is only one god and he's asleep. You get divine spells from archangels, elder titans, and giant unliving blobs of divine energy made from angel and titan corpses (silly paladins). Yup, get enough divine creatures to die in one place in my setting and you create a blob of power you can tap spells from. The leader of these group is an atheist who disbelievs in the sleeping god myth and says was just factions of First Age Wizards scamming everyone to build forces to kill the others without risking their own hides.

Doesn't help that the archdevils and star lords support this myth for their own reasons.

 

[reiella]

Clarifications:

- I mean he believes THE gods - Helm, Moradin, Mystara, etc. - are not truly 'gods', but very (very, very, keep going) powerful beings.

- No confusion that his patron clearly isn't a god; I was talking about THE gods of the Forgotten Realm.

- I've typically played that every character follows a deity (or pantheon), even if they don't serve in the same way a 'divine' class might.

It's specifically mentioned in 3.5 that even a cleric doesn't have to follow a god. Lacking that in 5e (at least in Basic), I'm wondering if the intention is that theism is universal in the default game setting?

One thing to note with Forgotten Realms, take some consideration as to how your character would react to learning about the Wall of the Faithless.